Follow Us

Subscribe

Listen to the Podcast

The farmer has become a prince

“The log cabin no longer adorns the landscape. Instead, is the stately mansion, indicative of wealth, of taste and of hospitality. There are spacious, nicely painted barns, hedges, orchards, well-fenced, well-tilled fields. Steel bridges span the turbulent streams, and macadamized roadways wind among the valleys and skirt the rising hills. Where the wigwam once stood, temples dedicated to the deity now dot the surrounding scene.

“The farmer has become a prince. The telephone has put him in touch with all his neighbors. The daily paper with the markets of the world, is regularly at his gate, and ere he goes afield he may scan its pages, and know the commercial history of the universe.

“The sickle, the hoe, the cradle, the flail, are the ancient farm implements about which he tells his grandchildren. All the modern scientific, up-to-date methods of farming are employed in Harrison County. Instead of bathing at the back porch pump of an evening, the farmer now adjourns to his porcelain bath tub.

“The gas grate has succeeded the back log: the swinging crane and the Dutch oven, the spinning wheel, and the perforated cream skimmer have disappeared. The tallow candle is regarded as the ‘light of other days.’ Where the rifle once adorned the chimney piece is a portrait in crayon or oil of ‘mother’ or of ‘father.’

“In the parlor are music and books; in the kitchen sunlight, conveniences and comfort. The farm today, in Harrison County, is a scene of art, of taste, of plenty, of comparative ease, and delightful independence. Gone are the ‘good old times,’ and the Harrison County farmer has fulfilled the poetical idea —

“The farmer’s the chief of the nation;The oldest of nobles is he,How blest beyond others his station,From want and envy, how free.”

HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF HARRISON COUNTY, OH1909 Souvenir edition of the Harrison County Democratsource: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ohharris/scan0001_1.pdf

Last six months:

By year:

From the Archives

The pioneering spirit that led settlers to carve Skyline Farms Colony from the rugged north Alabama landscape in the 1930s is pushing Skyline Farms Heritage Association to resurrect its buildings, artifacts and culture.